This is pure speculation on my part I’ll admit but I have a suspicion and I want to get this down as a post before we move into Shadowlands.
I want to talk about The Old Gods plan to turn Azeroth into a Dark Titan and how it involves the Emerald Dream and the Shadowlands. The Old Gods arrived on Azeroth first andthey build an entire Back Empire with the intention to corrupt Azeroth in the womb and make her a Void Titan, they did this by trying to reach her in the womb through Azeroth’s crust. But we don’t actually know if the Old Gods knew about the Emerald Dream at this time, and this is really important because of what I’m going to say may change how we view the History of Azeroth.
What Chronicle shared with us was that the Titans stumbled upon Azeroth when she was being corrupted by the Old Gods, but they soon realized that although these Old Gods were imbedded into her crust they had not managed to corrupt the sleeping Titan in her womb. So they took it upon themselves to purge Azeroth of these Old Gods. Aman’thul tried to rip Y’shaarj from the planet’s crust by force but found that when they did that they actually wounded Azeroth and they created a hole in the planet. They could not jut kill the Old Gods to they set out to Imprison them. Which they are successful at.
I want to momentarily diverge from the topic to note that our history was written in Titan Perspective but with the lore implications of Battle for Azeroth and the Visions of N’Zoth we were privileged to collect a book of Old God Secrets for Wrathion which suggests an alternate history of how the Old Gods were native to this world and the Titans came here and inflicted a “Curse of Stone”on all the mortal inhabitants of this world which includes the originators of our races and Yogg-Saron by creating The Curse of the Flesh was simply freeing us from the Titans. This is mildly relevant to this post because you can either view the Titans as saviors or colonizers of Azeroth and whichever position you take on this history will color your opinion of the history. But since we do not know more about the Old Gods point of view we will continue with the Titan point of view as fact.
We find out pretty early in Titan lore that the planet was terraformed by Freya to stop the spread of the Old Gods corruption, by tapping into the dreams of the sleeping Titan.Since Life and Order are on the same Pillar of cosmic alignment this makes sense. Dreams shape reality. So Freya with the help of the Wild Gods, created what we know know to be the Emerald Dream, as long as the Emerald Dream remained a wild lush green garden of Life, thus Azeroth would grow to nurture life. The Dream shapes her reality, and that’s why it needs to be protected.
The early elves planted sacred World Trees to be able to tap into Azeroth’s dream to help shape and cultivate this idealistic paradise that they hoped Azeroth would become. This is evident in the Druid narrative. With the help of “the Wild Gods”, alien beings from other planets who correspond to the alignment of Life, helped Freya subdue the chaotic Elemental spirits who are native to Azeroth. In Azeroth’s conception she consumed too much of the element of ‘Spirit’ which lead to the unstable elements. Once these unstable elements were bound to their own planes, by a Titan witch named Helya the Titans could proceed with terra-forming Azeroth.
Once the Titans left and the Wild Gods were left in charge, the Old Gods, specifically Yogg-Saron began to realize that he was able to corrupt the Emerald Dream in small ways by corrupting the World Trees. When the Night Elves became aware of this corruption they asked the Dragonflights to protect them against the Old Gods by blessing their World Trees. But that did not stop the Old Gods, so eventually the Night Elves were forced to cut down. Ursoc explains this story in Legion when you are claiming the Claws of Ursoc, he takes you to Andrassil, the Tree which Yogg-Saron first corrupted the Emerald Nightmare and created the sliver of the Emerald Nightmare that we encountered in Legion.
“The vassal of Life disguises treachery” -Il’gynoth, This treachery is The Rift of Aln.
This rift is what connects The Emerald Dream to the Outter Cosmic universe, The Great Dark Beyond, The Twisting Nether and (although it has not been confirmed I think this ties to the Shadowlands as well.) This first is a doorway for anything to come through and potentially corrupt Azeroth’s Dream, thus corrupting her. Players enter the rift through Lake Elune'ara in the Emerald Dream’s counterpart of Moonglade.
“Gazing into it, Malfurion Stormrage saw it as a bottomless chasm which radiated with primeval energies that even he dared not investigate. Indeed, the very rift itself seemed half-dreamed, for it had a surreal quality to its expanse and to the archdruid now and then seemed to ripple as if ready to fade or change.” - Stormrage
At the end of the Emerald Nightmare raid we are lead to the rift of Aln by the soul of Y’sera and we are shown a tendril of the void taking root in the Emerald Dream. This is bad omen. What this means is that after so many years of trying to get into the Dream and being thwarted, the Void now has it’s ‘way in’ to corrupt Azeroth’s dreams. Outside of the Old Gods. Instead of Old Gods, actual Void Lords how have the power to bend Azeroth to their will.
What Can Information can be gathered from Shadowlands that support this?
Order needs to have Order across all realms including Death. So it seems that very early on the Titans tapped into the realm of the Shadowlands and began ordering it to their will. They created four distinct realms which Mirror the great ordering of the Universe. Ardenweald is the realm of Life, Maldraxxrus is the Realm of Death, Bastion is the Realm of Order and Revendreth is the Realm of Disorder. You have Four rules of these realms who’s only purpose is to keep the Titanic Order in place. You have an Arbiter who’s entire duty is to simply equally disperse all souls to make sure that all of these realms are perfectly balanced.
And so it was for many many years. Until the Titans began to turn against one another, First with Sargeras turning on the Pantheon, when he learned the truth of the Void and the lengths the void had gone to to corrupt a world soul, to create ‘A Dark Titan’ again this is what the Titans want us to believe. Their singular goal is to maintain order at all costs. So for what purpose was the Shadowlands so ordered? simply to keep Disorder contained. Order and Disorder are duality an therefore are in conflict of one another.
It’s possible the Old Gods or the void thought they could use this as a means to shape Azeroth’s dreams and that ancient war resulted in the creation of the Maw and the Jailer. The Jailer and the essense of the Maw could simply be the Original force of Death and Disorder than the Titans hoped to order when they reordered the Shadowlands. This could be what the Legion under the force of Disorder was trying to release with the Dreadlords help by creating the Lich King.
Sacrifices to Maintain Order
“From the dawn of its reshaping by the mysterious titans, Azeroth had been guarded by beings who were tied to the world as no other creatures could be. The dragons had been empowered by the titans, but Azeroth itself gave rise to the spirits and demigods, creatures eternal in nature yet capable of ultimate sacrifice.” -Wolfheart
This line of dialogue hits harder after Ursoc’s sacrifice for Ardenweald.
I would like to point out that Azeroth isn’t just some fragment of the Universe, Azeroth IS the Universe, and through her dream can these forces shape the entire universe. World of Warcraft takes this idea from Indian mythology and the concept of “perusha”, In occult terms this is like the magician who awakens to the understanding that his thoughts shape the universe and thus any one person can shape the universe to their own will.
Again I’m going to throw back to a previous post I did about Forsaken religion The Cult of the Forgotten Shadow because it preaches exactly this and this isn’t a new belief in the World of Warfraft Mythology, this philosophy was something a human priest stole from the Cult of Shadow Orcs under the command of Gul’dan during the first War so this is fundamental mythology in the World of Warcraft universe. There is dialogue in both Ardenweald and Bastion that suggest that Shadowlands is simply a dream and each dreamer has a different experience and thus shapes their own universe differently. which could be a way to structurally add lore player agency without having to change story or game play to acknowledge this. We are all experiencing and shaping Azeroth in our own unique ways that is unique to our own experiences even if we are all experiencing one collective narrative.
“Still, we learned much from observing the link between their plane and Ardenweald, and we have high confidence that a vulnerability has been identified.” - Dreadlord book found in Shadowlands
What Shadowlands is, is a microcosm of the greater universe, and it will be amazing to see how it all plays out over the story telling within this next expansion.
When other popular lore Youtubers talk about ‘a War in the Shadowlands” how I interpret that is they understand that there is conflict on who gets to shape Azeroth’s will, be it the Shadow, the Light, the Titans, the Old Gods. but Azeroth is described as a Syzygy, she’s the cosmic alignment of all of these cosmic forces. This is what they are referring to when they talk about ‘The Balance’ in the narrative. Sylvanas, and the Jailer threaten this balance because they want to give one force (assuming it’s the Pillar of disorder and Death) the advantage to destory all life so that Azeroth can be re-shaped into something else, obviously that’s not what we want to happen we are invested in stopping the re-ordering of the Universe for our own survival, unless we personally have a hand in reshaping the universe and can reshape it to our own will.
Some new spoilers came out from the Maldraxxus interview with lead narrative designer Steve Danuser that support this idea of the cosmic forces being at war over control of the Shadowlands.
The armies of Maldraxxus’s whole purpose is to stop this from happening. It seems like the dreadlords are infiltrating these cosmic forces for reconnaissance.
“Maldraxxus was formed to create this infinite army to defend the Shadowlands against all kinds of threats. Now, what would those threats be? If you play through the Shadowlands story, you’ll encounter several situations where outside forces have made incursions into the Shadowlands. You see a place in Revendreth that seems touched by the Light. You see places within Bastion where there’s a memorial to an attack from the Void.”
“In all known realms of the cosmos, time flows forward, ever forward. Chaotic energies in places like the Twisting Nether can affect how quickly it flows, but it only flows forward. Once an event happens, it cannot be changed. These events and choices and different possibilities naturally spin off the river of time like small creeks and estuaries, ebbing and flowing for a while . If these shades of what could have been are left alone, they will eventually dissipate into nothing. If efforts are made to preserve them (or alter them, they can indeed remain in existence indefinitely. They can even be made to feed back into the main river - dead creatures can seemingly ‘live again’ and the past (or future) may literally come back to haunt you. This is not a natural phenomenon, and the inhabitants of the main timeway will often find these experiences to be quite alarming.
But the only timeway that has a permanent effect on the cosmos is the main timeway. Creatures like the bronze dragons, who have command of temporal magic, can see all the countless tributaries of alternate universes and timelines, and they can even move back and forth to observe the past and the future.
If the main river is disrupted, it could spell doom and disaster. All life on Azeroth depends on time to flow ever forward. Without the surety that the sun will rise and set each day the seasons would not pass, the cycle of life would become meaningless, and all the living creatures would eventually die from being unable to sustain themselves. It is the most sacred mission of the bronze dragonflight to keep that from happening”. -Chronicle Vol 1
The Timeway has been Warcraft’s version of a Chekov’s gun, we know something happens to it because we know from Cataclysm that the Bronze Dragon aspect Nozdormu eventually becomes Morozond, the leader of the infinite dragonflight. Morozond, with the help of his infinite dragonflight have been trying to change the events in time to divert “The true End Time” a future in which the Old Gods win. We stopped the event known as the Hour of Twilight in Cataclysm but that Hour of Twilight may have come again in Battle for Azeroth when N’zoth was released from his prison, because you see, everything that happens, happens, you cannot stop fate from unfolding because its fixed. The bronze dragons have spent years trying to research the affects of changing minor events and while yes you can change the details you cannot change the outcome.
The End Time dungeon has always fascinated me because of the implication that foue main characters will become a sort of corrupted ‘stand in’ for our four dragon aspects with the aspect of time notably absent. Seeing the darkest manifestation of these characters, which are Baine, Tyrande, Jaina and Sylvanas, I always thought this was foreshadowing to the last four standing but the reality of this was dark. Tyrande, abandoned by Elune is trapped in the dark not knowing friend from foe and attacking blindly. Baine, blinded by rage he tries to hard to pacify, tears himself apart for not being able to protect his people as they burned (possible foreshadowing to retaliation for Teldrassil?) Jaina, who is powerful and scared, again unable to see friend from foe and think everyone is out to get her. And lastly Sylvanas who has fully mastered death and can now wipe out all life at will, and as Mozorond explains in the end of the dungeon, while this is terrible this isn’t as bad as what happens in ‘the true end time’ our inevitable future.
But what does Time have to do with the Shadowlands? Time is absent from the Shadowlands.
In a recent interview for sagagamer, lead narrative designer Steve Danuser when speaking about the lore of Maldraxxus really spilled the beans when it comes to some very important lore of the Shadowlands found in Maldraxxus. Not only did he suggest that the cosmic powers have all fought for dominance over the Shadowlands and have lost, thanks to the armies of Maldraxxus. The Primus has used the benefit of viewing the timeways to ensure victories in these battles. When you can see the future, it helps out smart your enemy. Here’s a snippet of Steve’s responses below:
“It is said that the Primus sought out an ally who could show him the infinite timeways, which he used to watch the same battle play out over and over again across realities. He noted how the slightest differences in strategy and troop deployment could swing the conflict toward one side or the other. After eons of such meticulous study, the Primus can instantly assess any situation and devise the most likely path to victory.”
“As you play through the storyline, you come to learn that the Primus began to suspect that there was something going on. You’ll see hints that he was involved in whatever happened with the Jailer’s imprisonment.” -Steve Danuser sagagamer interview on Maldraxxus.
So the first question is who is The Primus’ mysterious ally? well it could be Morozond or it could be Medivh, both would have the power but Medivh has been mysteriously absent and possibly dead for years so I can see this being Medivh simply because Morozond would be to easy of a guess.
Medivh’s sole purpose since he discovered Sargeras’s plan to destroy the universe and Azeroth specifically was to defend Azeroth by any means necessary. If he had uncovered a connection between The Jailer and Sargaras which is heavily hinted at and other lore speculators have also made this connection, then Medivh would be working with whatever forces were banding together to stop this, this includes us and our role that we must play in this game of chess with the universe, because Medivh is not the only one testing us. This snippet of the intro into Shadowlands quest chain stuck me as relevant.
The Jailer also seems to be testing us, or more specifically, Baine and Jaina (and Thrall) Tyrande was meant also to be captured but she managed to fight off her attackers, and Sylvanas is working with the Jailer to bring about his plan.
This is all too convenient. Those taken are related to those last four standing in the End Time and Thrall, being the one who stopped the End Time the first time around, This is no coincidence. Steve also teased that Thrall would find his way to Maldraxxus to have an emotional reunion with his mother.
Sylvanas’s speech at the end of Shadow’s Rising about dismantling the ladder of the universe not rung by rung but all at once suggests that she has plans to do something drastic and the Jailer understands this plan. I feel like this is going to lead to a Shadowlands endgame where they work together to destroy the Timeway.
I’m super excited to get into Maldraxxus and see how the story adds more plausibility to this theory.
I was doing the Broken Shore scenario on one of my alts and the first demon I fought had some dialogue i never noticed before now. Dread Commander Arganoth is sent by the Legion to fight us but he has some rather interesting dialogue. He says “The Master will reward me for your souls” and “Your souls will fuel the soul forge.” wondering why a Legion demon would be talking about The Forge of Souls (a wing of Icecrown) got me to revisit this dungeon and I’m glad I did. Especially on today when the Revendreth Afterlives launched and the imagery is still fresh in my mind.
I was hoping to work on other lore posts but this ended up being the rabbit hole I fell down and I don’t even know if I want to come back out.
So what is the Forge of Souls?
It was essentially the place where all souls stolen from Frsotmourne were kept, where Cult of the Damned cultists tortured them and drained them of their essence which we now know is anima.
You quickly encounter this group if cultists ‘harvesting’ a tortured soul. It’s important to note that after Arthas was defeated the Cult of the Damned did not follow Bolvar, they became a shadow organization which didn’t do much of anything, were only vaguely hinted at in Legion because they had the Book of Medivh, which Gul’dan later stole. The fact that they even had the book of Medivh for such a long amount of time is a lore post itself, It’s safe to assume that the Cult of the Damned because of this has greater insight into the cosmic forces at large.
This didn’t seem all that important twelve years ago but since this imagery was fresh in my mind it stood out as a very important parallels.
They don’t just ‘harvest’ souls for anima in Revendreth, Ner’zul was harvesting them for himself or for a Master. You see when The Burning Legion promised Gul’dan power to betray Ner’Zul and trap him in the role of the Lich King to become Death’s Jailer, Ner’zul was promised that if he purged Azeroth of all life he would be rewarded with eternal life. That would be a lot of anima feed to his mysterious “Master”
It has become increasingly clear after that Revendreth Afterlives short that atonement is not truly what Sira Denathruis is seeking from his charges. He is draining them of anima because he too has a mysterious Master, which may or may not be the Jailer. It’s probably the Jailer but I digress I think the real Master of the Scourge is Yogg-Saron.
With the lore revelations found in the Prologue of the Inflitration book, which is located in Revendreth in the part of Castle Nathria connected to the Dreadlords it’s safe to assume that the Dreadlords were not working for the Burning Legion at all but used the Legion as a means to an end to acquire more anima for their Master.
The origins of Icecrown are becoming more and more clear. remembering that the San’layn are featured in the Icecrown raid I went upstairs to see if there was more lore to be had about who the San’layn are really working for.
This also explains why the Lich King had those vials of Sylvanas’s blood which he took from her as she was dying, he wanted some of her anima for the Forge. The origins of the San’layn are they were the heroes of the Third War, when Illidan and Kael’thas teamed up on a failed mission to destroy the Lich King prior to the events of Wrath of the Lich King, The Lich King raised these fallen blood elves as Darkfallen. If you remain idol for too long in the room before you kill the Shadow Council without music you can hear Blood Queen Lana’thel sing the Lament of the Highborne. This will be interesting as we delve more into Kael’thas’s trials in Revendreth. Kael’thas did have Sylvanas’s ring on him as a loot drop in Tempest Keep and he did accept the San’layn’s promise for power in Magister’s Terrece, so there is more to that story than we previously thought.
It seems like we may be asked to revisit the Forge of Souls in the Shadowlands pre-patch. The Cult of the Damned make a re-appearance in the pre-patch of Shadowlands. Secret plots from Battle for Azeroth are being unraveled.
In the pre-patch quest titled Secrets in the Shadows it seems that we are lead to Icecrown to see what the Cult of the Damned are up to. The cult of the Damned did not follow Bolvar after Arthas’s Fall, they most likely still followed Kel’thuzad who was secretly working with the Venthyr, the Jailer, the Nathrezim and the Legion.
It seems like they have aligned themselves with the Jailer, no doubt there will be more lore that delves deeper into this connection and the connection of the Forge of Souls to Revendreth.
What a random assortment of bosses who are in no way affiliated with one another! those were my first assumptions about this dungeon. I actually thought this dungeon would be the ‘fun’ dungeon little did I know then that it would in fact be the lore packed dungeon! So let’s unpack it and delve deeper into The Other Side.(No I’m not going to call it “Da Other side”)
Bwonsamdi: “Now here’s a loa ya might remember! Hakkar always be needin’ mojo for his rituals… and Bwonsamdi always be willin’ ta make a deal.”
Bwonsamdi: “Whatcha be giving me dat look for? Sure, hakkar be a loa of blood. But a deal’s a deal, man! Tsk. Just get me mojo back.”
It’s interesting that datamined story spoilers suggest that Bownsamdi made “ancient deals” relating to Hakkar, because that actually divulges a lot.
Hakkar the Soul Flayer
Loa of Blood, responsible for the blood plague that wiped out an entire server and the worst pandemic in wow’s history. But He also has some pretty cool lore ties. Back in 2005 when I first started playing this game I will tell you that I hated Sunken Temple, it was only after Cata and the revamp of that dungeon that I began to appreciate it more and after running it so many times leveling alts I was surprised I didn’t care more about this lore. I knew there was a sleeping green dragon at the end but at that time I had no idea of the greater lore and I just did not care, fast forward to 2020 and I’m here to tell you why you should suddenly care about his lore.
He’s important because of his connections to the Emerald Nightmare. You see the trolls who worshiped Hakkar were absolute cultists called the Atar’ai, which translates from the troll language into ‘the devoted ones.’ Hakkar’s blood had devastating effects on the dragons. These former jailers of the Atal'ai were corrupted by its presence in their bodies and became creatures of Nightmare. Even Eranikus, one of the greatest green dragons, infused with the largest quantities of blood, became twisted beyond imagination.
The origins of Hakkar remain unknown, and there are no mentions of him in any Titan records, but with Battle for Azeroth we can speculate that he may have had Old God ties to G’huun as Hakkar wasn’t the only Loa to be corrupted by the Blood God, Hireek was also a minion of G’huun.
Hakkar became so used to feeding on blood that he became more powerful the more he consumed, which created a problem because we would not just turn his bloodlust on the trolls enemies but the trolls themselves. His presence made his followers angry. The Zandalari while delving in ancient knowledge discovered a mysterious truth about Hakkar, They consulted myths and delved into historical accounts. What they learned horrified them. They banded together to fight the Atal’ai and banish Hakkar from the world forever.
The Atal’ai priests were not done though trying to bring Hakkar back into the world. When they erected the Sunken Temple, Atal’Hakkar, Y’sera became aware of what the priests were trying to do so she and her green dragonflight set out to destroy the temple and they sunk it. Eranikus, Y’sera’s consort was sent to make sure that the trolls would not raise Hakkar again. but the trolls used the blood of Hakkar, which had devastating effects to the green dragons and that put Eranikus in a mysterious deep sleep and he started to go mad as result. Having such a strong connection to the Emerald dream Eranikus’s mad dreaming paved way for Xavius to take that dream and begin forming the Emerald Nightmare for his master.
This conflict culminated in The War against the Nightmare, which happened in the novel Stormrage. Using Eranikus’s power over the Emerald Dream, Xavius used his power to send a fog out through Azeroth that put people mysteriously to sleep where many people had to face their worst nightmares. The fog even reached Undercity where it became evident that even the Leader of the Forsaken was not immune to the Emerald Nightmares corruption, perhaps that’s a added layer to why she burnt Teldrassil.
Teldrassil was not blessed by the Aspects in it’s inception which made it vulnerable to Old God corruption. Just like how Vordrassil’s roots grew too close to Yogg-Saron’s prison, World Trees could be easily corrupted by the powers of the Old Gods. Teldrassil was eventually cleansed and blessed and Malfurian seemed to have stemmed the corruption possibly angering the Old Gods. Eranikus sacrifices his life to protect Teldrassil and stop the spread of the Nightmare, until Legion when the Nightmare begins to creep into Val’shara.
Dungeon Jounal: Even the presence of Hakkar the Soulflayer has caused turmoil on Azeroth. Violence and plague mark his blood and his immeasurable power. His faithful fought for him till death, and beyond. Giving up power has never been his way, even when it is not his own.
So there’s a running theme here. Three of the four bosses in this dungeon have Old God ties, and even though we defeat Hakkar, we don’t see the last of him.
Bwonsamdi:Ol’ Hakkar, he a nasty one. But ya be makin’ him pay his debt. Sooner or later, him gonna be back. Ya can’t be keepin’ a bad loa down!
The Manastorms
Okay so this is a continuation of my post the other day about Millhouse’s mysterious connections to the Dreadlord Kathra’natir. As I pointed out in my last post Millhouse has a bit of a sorted history. We first encounter him in WoLK in prison. He’s been locked up by the mages because he’s power hungry and unstable.
He makes a rather comical re-appearance in Cataclysm when he shows up in a Deepholm Dungeon only this time he’s aligned with Twilight’s Hammer cultists. Yup, N’Zoth cultists. again another connection to the Old Gods.
But that’s not all, he shows up as an important figure in the Mage Order Hall. It seems like in Legion the Tirin Tor decided they could trust him again, he helps bring down the Dreadlord Kathra’natir who has a long and dark history with the Kirin Tor mages., we end up trapping Kathra’natir’s soul in a soul relic which is kept on display in the Mage Order Hall but Millhouse seems way too interested in it. In Legion it’s important to note that he again is lured back to the Violet Hold, where we first find him and that’s where we first encounter Kathra’natir trying to summon demons into Dalaran. Coincidence? that’s doubtful. During this scenario is when Millhouse gets reunited with his wife, apparently they are estranged and she’s just as volatile as he is, you get the sense though at the end of this scenario that they are working on their relationship..
Millhouse pops up again ironically in the Brawler’s guild where you uncover a dark plot involving.. you guessed it Old Gods.
Dungeon Journal: Absolute honesty and trust are what makes Millicent and Milhouse Manastorm such a power couple. Well, honesty, trust, staggering magic and experimental technology. Combining these four elements in perfect harmony makes the Manastorms the most deadly, dangerous and disastrous couple anywhere.
There’s no datamined dialogue for this fight but I’m sure it will be interesting.
Dealer Xy'exa
As a wheeler and dealer of mementos she’s probably related to the odd crystal collector in the Twisted Visions of N’Zoth but other than the vague suggestions that the Consortium are working with the Void Lords. and they have “Watchers” all over the place, and even infiltrating our Trial of Style trying to learn everything they can about us to report back to their mysterious “Masters” I’m willing to bet in this fight we learn that there are neutral forces like the Consortium who are on the same side as the Old Gods and the Dreadlords.
Dungeon Journal: Dealer Xy'exa is a cunning aquisitionist, wielding an array of magical contrivances that she has collected over the millennia. She relies on spatial manipulation to stay one step ahead of the innumerable enemies she’s made in her dealings.
So obviously Meuh’zala is the big deal of this dungeon. Because we find out that he’s actually the one responsible for making Sylvanas warchief. He’s the loa that whispered to a dying Vol’jin urging him to do something terrible.
But Mueh’zala as I have predicted is just a smoke screen. Mueh’zala’s name appears in lore only once on a Sandfury Troll tablet in Zul Farak. In Chronicle the Titans go so far as to claim that he was once a mortal Troll chief who stumbled on a C’thraxxi and started worshiping it as a God. The primitive trolls worshiped Old Gods thinking they were the first Loa. Mythrax the Unraveler, a servant of G’huun is one of these ancient primordial C’thraxxi that the ancient trolls worshiped.
Mueh’zala was described as a shapeshifter able to become just a vaporous black mass if he wanted to. His titles are also very suspicious. He is called “Father of Sleep, Son of Time, the Night’s Friend “ these titles can be read into.
Sleep is another word for “Dream”, Night’s friend can be “Twilight” and ‘Son of Time” is interesting because it may note to a connection to Morozond. (who I was initially predicting as being Mueh’zala prior to his model being released. I’m still not entirely convinced this projection of a troll is the ‘real’ Mueh’zala.
Vol’jin (or Bwonsamdi): Me no bow ta ya cheap tricks!
Mueh’zala:[To Bwonsamdi]Azeroth be in ruins… and it be over one… little… whisper ta dis foolish troll.
Mueh’zala: [To Vol’jin] Ya played ya part perfectly! Me was promised ta torture ya forever… but den someone else had ta get in de way.
Vol’jin (or Bwonsamdi): Me be bored of ya, Mueh'zala. It be time for ya to be banished back ta de Other Side.I be keepin’ ya dere for de rest of existence. Ya got a new master now.
Vo’jin: Me be releasin’ da binds a bit on Mueh'zala. You be makin’ sure me people don’t get lost ta his power.
Vol’jin:Mueh'zala be usin’ me… ta put Sylvanas in power. Me be notin’ but a pawn ta he and dis Jailer’s plans.
Vol’jin:Den it be time ta strike back against de Jailer.
Bwonsamdi: Tink ya can be breakin’ free now, Mueh'zala?
Mueh’zala: Foolish loa! You no be stoppin’ me power. I be feastin’ on ya followers… den you!
Mueh'zala
Dungeon Journal: Father of Sleep, Son of Time, the Night’s Friend, Mueh'zala ushered the dead of Azeroth long before Bwonsamdi made his first deal. He knows a god should rule, not beg for servants and worshipers. The plans he laid in ancient times to reclaim that power are coming to fruition, once he deals with his rebellious replacement.
Mueh’zala made an ancient deal and now it’s going to come to fruition? interesting. This ancient deal was probably the deal he made with Odyn as we now know from datamining that it was Mueh’zala who Odyn traded his eye to to peer into the Shadowlands to gain the knowledge on how to fight the Old Gods, by creating the Vala’jar based on the ascended of Bastion.
What I love about dungeons journals is they can provide so much to speculate on just with abilities these bosses have at their disposal, for instance Mueh’zala has a spell called “Master of Death.” His ties to Sylvanas are interesting because of her dialogue “Death is mine to Master” If you want more about this connection check out my posts tagged Death will inherent this world and she will be waiting.
Another interesting thing is the lore implication that there is a definitive “truth” . Uther has some similar lines about how the Shadowlands is slightly different based on individuals perception. In the Vol’jin quest in Battle for Azeroth there is a “truth” being hidden from Vol’jin as to why Sylvanas was made warchief. Something is distorting reality to keep this truth hidden.
So, Yeah. There’s so much meat here on these datamined bones. and I look forward to getting to explore this zone and this dungeon and see if there’s any thread of truth to this speculation.
I want to briefly talk about re-origination and how that falls into the Titan purpose of Order. We have Titan power stations all over Azeroth from Ulduar, with it’s Forge of Wills, to the Engine of Nalak’sha, to the Forge of Origination in Uldum. These Titan facilities were put in place by the Titans to re-originate the planet in the event that it became to disordered. We know this because Algalon the Observer tells us such, but what Algalon implies is astounding. the Titans are without emotions and that is why they cannot have an emotional response to the plight of mortal beings living on these Titan world souls. Algalon is amazed at our tenacity, it almost seems like he was under the impression that the living mortals were incapable of having emotions. He credits our free will that makes us who we are..
Now, we did not get this free will from the Titans. We were allegedly created by the Titans as the Titanforged, we were beings of metal and stone, we were machinations, but we were turned into mortals by Yogg-Saron’s Curse of the Flesh.
When we fight Il’gynoth he becomes upset that we are trying to kill him and claims we are on the same side. “we share a master! Flesh is his gift, he is your true creator” talking about Yogg-Saron.
Now N’zoth’s cultists have a very different view of history. According to the Old Gods mortals were given the Curse of Stone by the Titans and thus free will was taken away. The Old Gods only sought to restore it to the mortals by destroying the Titanforge. This is huge revelations, this book is Titled “the Lies of the Titans” and it’s pages were found by wading deeper and deeper into the Visions of N’Zoth.
The entire mechagnome plot is interesting and relates because the gnomes believing themselves flawed creations cursed with flesh tried to turn themselves back into Titanforged through mechanizing part of their bodies leaving their consciousness in machines but this created a superiority complex and lack of humanity and also they started to enforce this change on others taking away their free will.
Titans want a perfectly ordered universe and to achieve that they must destroy free will, you see ripples of this in Shadowlands when Devos rebels against Bastion’s order and purpose. It does seem like the Shadowlands have been ordered by the Titans. Odyn trades his eye to see into the Shadowlands and he sees the Order of Bastion and wants to replicate it. It’s important to bring up that at this time when Odyn was trying to create the Halls of Valor in Bastion’s image the Titans were dead, slain by Sargeras and to save their own souls they sent their souls hurling through space and found the Titan Watchers they had placed on Azeroth. Odyn was the vessel for Aman’thul’s soul during this time, and during this time Odyn enslaves Helya takes away her free will and turns her into the first Val ‘kyr. This will be an pivotal lore moment in Shadowlands because of how Odyn is connected to the Shadowlands and how Helya seems to be working with the Jailer.
At the beginning of this conflict when just the Titans were known to have existed. Aman’thul confronted Sargeras on a planet called Nihilim (which is an allegory to the Biblical “Nephilim” the Fall of the ‘Sons of God. Warcraft does love it’s Biblical allegory!’) and told him of Azeroth, The strongest of their brothers and sisters. Aman’thul said that if the Titans could control Azeroth that they would be able to wipe out the Void Lords without having to wipe out all Life in the Universe. This meeting was the real point where Sargeras turned against Aman’thul and the pantheon. Sargeras realized that Aman’thul, and the Titans were no better than the Void Lords.They all wanted to control Azeroth and thus control the Universe, and this is what lead to Aman’thul and the pantheon’s death at the hands of Sargeras. To spare themselves from going to the Shadowlands they used the Titan Keepers to escape death. I would assume this is the first real betrayal and we will see the effects of this moment had on the creation of the Shadowlands and of the Jailer.
We now know from Shadowlands spoilers that Odyn made a deal with Mueh’zala to obtain this information so there is more lore to be had here between the Titans and the Shadowlands. Odyn was creating the Valajar and the Halls of Valor to fight the minions of Yogg-Saron which mysteriously had a connection to the Undead and Maldraxxus. We don’t know much about this connection yet but it’s a connection I’m sure this is the information Draka was tasked with finding out in the Maldraxxus Afterlives short when she visits a Burning Legion stronghold.
So that opens the door to question if Yogg-Saron and the Old Gods are in fact on our side and trying to protect us from the Titans by giving us free will. N’Zoth’s dialogue has seemed like he was rooting for us, he was testing us for something bigger and that is repeated in the Maw with Torghast. we are being tested, so see if we can face what is to come.
Magni may not be a champion of Azeroth herself but a Titan pawn “The King of diamonds has been made a pawn.”
In Battle for Azeroth we fight Sun Prophets and not just Old God minions in our invasions, they want to re-originate the planet and complete the Titans objectives so it’s clear that even the Titans don’t really care about mortal lives as long as Order is maintained.
Free-will makes us unique because we can choose what we believe is the truth, and any force which tries to take away free will, be it the Old Gods, the Titans, the Light, undeath etc is the enemy. The ‘heroes’ will be the ones trying to protect free will. like Illidan’s rejection of the gift is a great example of this.
Sylvanas’s speech in the epilogue of Shadows Rising is another example of how we must fight all of these cosmic forces that challenge our free will and not just one enemy. These ‘agents’ of free will may be the true heroes of this story.
This is pure speculation on my part I’ll admit but I have a suspicion and I want to get this down as a post before we move into Shadowlands.
I want to talk about The Old Gods plan to turn Azeroth into a Dark Titan and how it involves the Emerald Dream and the Shadowlands. The Old Gods arrived on Azeroth first andthey build an entire Back Empire with the intention to corrupt Azeroth in the womb and make her a Void Titan, they did this by trying to reach her in the womb through Azeroth’s crust. But we don’t actually know if the Old Gods knew about the Emerald Dream at this time, and this is really important because of what I’m going to say may change how we view the History of Azeroth.
What Chronicle shared with us was that the Titans stumbled upon Azeroth when she was being corrupted by the Old Gods, but they soon realized that although these Old Gods were imbedded into her crust they had not managed to corrupt the sleeping Titan in her womb. So they took it upon themselves to purge Azeroth of these Old Gods. Aman’thul tried to rip Y’shaarj from the planet’s crust by force but found that when they did that they actually wounded Azeroth and they created a hole in the planet. They could not jut kill the Old Gods to they set out to Imprison them. Which they are successful at.
I want to momentarily diverge from the topic to note that our history was written in Titan Perspective but with the lore implications of Battle for Azeroth and the Visions of N’Zoth we were privileged to collect a book of Old God Secrets for Wrathion which suggests an alternate history of how the Old Gods were native to this world and the Titans came here and inflicted a “Curse of Stone”on all the mortal inhabitants of this world which includes the originators of our races and Yogg-Saron by creating The Curse of the Flesh was simply freeing us from the Titans. This is mildly relevant to this post because you can either view the Titans as saviors or colonizers of Azeroth and whichever position you take on this history will color your opinion of the history. But since we do not know more about the Old Gods point of view we will continue with the Titan point of view as fact.
We find out pretty early in Titan lore that the planet was terraformed by Freya to stop the spread of the Old Gods corruption, by tapping into the dreams of the sleeping Titan.Since Life and Order are on the same Pillar of cosmic alignment this makes sense. Dreams shape reality. So Freya with the help of the Wild Gods, created what we know know to be the Emerald Dream, as long as the Emerald Dream remained a wild lush green garden of Life, thus Azeroth would grow to nurture life. The Dream shapes her reality, and that’s why it needs to be protected.
The early elves planted sacred World Trees to be able to tap into Azeroth’s dream to help shape and cultivate this idealistic paradise that they hoped Azeroth would become. This is evident in the Druid narrative. With the help of “the Wild Gods”, alien beings from other planets who correspond to the alignment of Life, helped Freya subdue the chaotic Elemental spirits who are native to Azeroth. In Azeroth’s conception she consumed too much of the element of ‘Spirit’ which lead to the unstable elements. Once these unstable elements were bound to their own planes, by a Titan witch named Helya the Titans could proceed with terra-forming Azeroth.
Once the Titans left and the Wild Gods were left in charge, the Old Gods, specifically Yogg-Saron began to realize that he was able to corrupt the Emerald Dream in small ways by corrupting the World Trees. When the Night Elves became aware of this corruption they asked the Dragonflights to protect them against the Old Gods by blessing their World Trees. But that did not stop the Old Gods, so eventually the Night Elves were forced to cut down. Ursoc explains this story in Legion when you are claiming the Claws of Ursoc, he takes you to Andrassil, the Tree which Yogg-Saron first corrupted the Emerald Nightmare and created the sliver of the Emerald Nightmare that we encountered in Legion.
“The vassal of Life disguises treachery” -Il’gynoth, This treachery is The Rift of Aln.
This rift is what connects The Emerald Dream to the Outter Cosmic universe, The Great Dark Beyond, The Twisting Nether and (although it has not been confirmed I think this ties to the Shadowlands as well.) This first is a doorway for anything to come through and potentially corrupt Azeroth’s Dream, thus corrupting her. Players enter the rift through Lake Elune'ara in the Emerald Dream’s counterpart of Moonglade.
“Gazing into it, Malfurion Stormrage saw it as a bottomless chasm which radiated with primeval energies that even he dared not investigate. Indeed, the very rift itself seemed half-dreamed, for it had a surreal quality to its expanse and to the archdruid now and then seemed to ripple as if ready to fade or change.” - Stormrage
At the end of the Emerald Nightmare raid we are lead to the rift of Aln by the soul of Y’sera and we are shown a tendril of the void taking root in the Emerald Dream. This is bad omen. What this means is that after so many years of trying to get into the Dream and being thwarted, the Void now has it’s ‘way in’ to corrupt Azeroth’s dreams. Outside of the Old Gods. Instead of Old Gods, actual Void Lords how have the power to bend Azeroth to their will.
What Can Information can be gathered from Shadowlands that support this?
Order needs to have Order across all realms including Death. So it seems that very early on the Titans tapped into the realm of the Shadowlands and began ordering it to their will. They created four distinct realms which Mirror the great ordering of the Universe. Ardenweald is the realm of Life, Maldraxxrus is the Realm of Death, Bastion is the Realm of Order and Revendreth is the Realm of Disorder. You have Four rules of these realms who’s only purpose is to keep the Titanic Order in place. You have an Arbiter who’s entire duty is to simply equally disperse all souls to make sure that all of these realms are perfectly balanced.
And so it was for many many years. Until the Titans began to turn against one another, First with Sargeras turning on the Pantheon, when he learned the truth of the Void and the lengths the void had gone to to corrupt a world soul, to create ‘A Dark Titan’ again this is what the Titans want us to believe. Their singular goal is to maintain order at all costs. So for what purpose was the Shadowlands so ordered? simply to keep Disorder contained. Order and Disorder are duality an therefore are in conflict of one another.
It’s possible the Old Gods or the void thought they could use this as a means to shape Azeroth’s dreams and that ancient war resulted in the creation of the Maw and the Jailer. The Jailer and the essense of the Maw could simply be the Original force of Death and Disorder than the Titans hoped to order when they reordered the Shadowlands. This could be what the Legion under the force of Disorder was trying to release with the Dreadlords help by creating the Lich King.
Sacrifices to Maintain Order
“From the dawn of its reshaping by the mysterious titans, Azeroth had been guarded by beings who were tied to the world as no other creatures could be. The dragons had been empowered by the titans, but Azeroth itself gave rise to the spirits and demigods, creatures eternal in nature yet capable of ultimate sacrifice.” -Wolfheart
This line of dialogue hits harder after Ursoc’s sacrifice for Ardenweald.
I would like to point out that Azeroth isn’t just some fragment of the Universe, Azeroth IS the Universe, and through her dream can these forces shape the entire universe. World of Warcraft takes this idea from Indian mythology and the concept of “perusha”, In occult terms this is like the magician who awakens to the understanding that his thoughts shape the universe and thus any one person can shape the universe to their own will.
Again I’m going to throw back to a previous post I did about Forsaken religion The Cult of the Forgotten Shadow because it preaches exactly this and this isn’t a new belief in the World of Warfraft Mythology, this philosophy was something a human priest stole from the Cult of Shadow Orcs under the command of Gul’dan during the first War so this is fundamental mythology in the World of Warcraft universe. There is dialogue in both Ardenweald and Bastion that suggest that Shadowlands is simply a dream and each dreamer has a different experience and thus shapes their own universe differently. which could be a way to structurally add lore player agency without having to change story or game play to acknowledge this. We are all experiencing and shaping Azeroth in our own unique ways that is unique to our own experiences even if we are all experiencing one collective narrative.
“Still, we learned much from observing the link between their plane and Ardenweald, and we have high confidence that a vulnerability has been identified.” - Dreadlord book found in Shadowlands
What Shadowlands is, is a microcosm of the greater universe, and it will be amazing to see how it all plays out over the story telling within this next expansion.
When other popular lore Youtubers talk about ‘a War in the Shadowlands” how I interpret that is they understand that there is conflict on who gets to shape Azeroth’s will, be it the Shadow, the Light, the Titans, the Old Gods. but Azeroth is described as a Syzygy, she’s the cosmic alignment of all of these cosmic forces. This is what they are referring to when they talk about ‘The Balance’ in the narrative. Sylvanas, and the Jailer threaten this balance because they want to give one force (assuming it’s the Pillar of disorder and Death) the advantage to destory all life so that Azeroth can be re-shaped into something else, obviously that’s not what we want to happen we are invested in stopping the re-ordering of the Universe for our own survival, unless we personally have a hand in reshaping the universe and can reshape it to our own will.
In Legion Medivh’s Dark Riders were trying to get their hands on three weapons. Warriors, Warlocks and Druids were all lead to the catacombs below Karazhan to acquire these three relics. It didn’t strike me until later why these three relics are important to the story until now. These are not only three relics tied exclusively to death and the Shadowlands but also part of an over-reaching Nathrezim plot. At first I discovered this plot in Duskwood, as a balance druid who encounters some Dark Riders trying to steal the Scylthe of Elune, Then I stumbled on this plot again when digging deeper into the history of Karazhan and Salatiel and her connection to the weapon Ulthalesh, the Deadwind Harvester. I’ve thought about posting these lore deep dives as seperate posts which I think I will as a series. But Dreadlord Kathra’natir’s connection to Apocalypse seems more urgent to post since it correlates with potential Shadowlands speculation and spoilers and I wanted to get that out of the way before launch, before everything comes out and there’s nothing left to speculate on.
The Dreadlord Kathra'natir and Apocalypse.
Kathra’natir was the last Dreadlord to weld the Shadowlands forged weapon Apocalypse, The Unholy Death Night artifact weapon and that’s the least of what ties him to this plot.
Apocalypse is the sister blade to Frostmourne in my humble opinion although there is no real canonical evidence to back it up but they serve the same purpose. To annihilate all life.
Now if you have seen my post about Forstmourne being related to the Blade of Sargeras, this is a continuation of that theory. I think Apocalypse is also related to the Bade of Sargeras.
An ancient blade crafted by the Nathrezim which spreads plague, death and violence in its wake, Apocalypse is a powerful tool of destruction. The blade was wielded by the Tirisgarde before it fell in the hands of the Dark Riders.Now the only way to find it is to hunt down the riders to their secret lair. Apocalypse enhances it’s owner with powerful shadow magic and fearsome minions.
The Lich King says: The sanctum of the Dark Riders is hidden even to my sight, though many in Duskwood have given their lives to unearth it.
The Dark riders are hiding many secrets, at the command of Medivh. Because Medivh is in on whatever cosmic plot is going down. When you track down the Dark Riders you are lead to a camp where it’s very clear they have some connections to agents of the void.
This weapon needs to be hidden because it’s uncontrollable and will make the bearer crazy with untamed anger and wrath, not unlike Sargeras. Kathra’natir was one of Sargeras’s top Dreadlord generals and the first one to wield this blade. with it he wiped out entire planets, most notably the planet Navane, Disguised as one of their own soldiers, Kathra'natir walked among Navane’s resistance forces and whispered rumors of betrayal in every ear while Apocalypse clouded the defenders’ ability to reason. Old hatreds and rivalries resurfaced, and the defenders began to fear each other as much as the Legion. In one night of wanton bloodshed, Navane’s army went to war with itself as Kathra'natir admired his handiwork from a distance. By sunrise, not a single soldier remained to oppose the Legion’s conquest of the planet.
Kathra’natir is probably not a dreadlord you know a lot about if you haven’t read the comics, because his story is mostly in the comics but he was ‘resurrected’ into World of Warcraft canon in Legion when Gul’dan summoned him to fight at the Broken Shore. You see, Kathra’natir’s specialty is pitting armies against one another.
Vol'jin: Sometin’ not be right dat day. Da demons, deir blades slipped past me guard. Vol'jin: As if da loa demselves had forsaken me. Vol'jin: Like dey be doin’ now. Cannot hear dem, champion. Da voices of da loa be silent. Vol'jin: I been callin’ ta Bwonsamdi for a long time. He not be hearin’ me… or he been choosin’ not ta answer. Vol'jin: Somethin’ was definitely helping’ our enemies dat day. But who or what could dat have been? Da loa were silent and their powers were gone, as if I’d lost their favor. With so much death, I be havin’ one person in mind who might be behind it.
Vol'jin:A darkness in me mind be keeping me from remembering what happened da day I named Sylvanas warchief. Vol'jin: I remember dyin’. I remember glimpsin’ da Other Side. Vol'jin:I was expectin’ ta see ol’ Bwonsamdi, or Shadra, or Hir'reek… any of da loa. Vol'jin: Dere was a presence. Somethin’ movin’ in da shadows. Somethin’ powerful. Vol'jin:I remember it takin’ me somewhere, but da memory of where be hidden from me. Ta keep me from sharin’ da truth… Vol'jin: Da truth dat it might not be da loa who wanted Sylvanas to be warchief, but somethin’ far more powerful.
If the jailer is bound to the Maw, he would need agents outside of the Shadowlands to do his bidding.
It could be argued that the 4th war didn’t start when Sylvanas burned Teldrassil but with the betrayal at the Broken Shore. Something, a dark force, made Vol’jin vulnerable, obscuring his vision so that he did not see the demon’s blade which would later hill him. This blow would force Sylvanas to retreat to save the Horde, leaving the Alliance troops on the ground to believe that Sylvanas intentionally betrayed the Alliance and this betrayal would lead to Genn making an unauthorized attack against the Horde in Stormheim.
The Nathrazim also had two distinct plots in Legion where they infiltrated the Mage and the Rogue Order halls by having a dreadlord impersonate Mathias Shaw and Meryl Felstorm to collect data on both the Uncrowned and the Council of Tirisfal. Detheroc was one who infiltrated the Rogue Order Hall and Kathra’natir the Mage Order Hall. Kathra’natir had a personal vandetta against the Tirisgrade because they vowed, in the comics, to hunt him down and kill him.
We chase Kathra’natir to the Occulus, where we defeat him and gain an artifact called the Nightborne Soulstone which contains his captured soul.
Millhouse Manastorm seems way too interested in this artifact and although Millhouse seems to be on the side the mages, as we see, the Manastorms will show up in Shadowlands as bosses of ‘Da Other Side’ dungeon, it’s possible that Millhouse has stolen this relic for himself. I’m going to throw out a wild speculation here and say that it’s possible that Millhouse does steal this artifact in Shadowlands and that’s how he becomes a villain. He may be working for himself but in service to a higher power, The Nethrazim, because they granted him more power. That’s entirely plausible.
This artifact still is housed in the Mage Class Hall, but since we have been away I’m sure it will mysteriously go missing.
Archamge Vorgoth seemed to have fallen on the right breadcrumb trail when researching the soulstore because he came across a dreadlord’s plot. I was gathering notes on the Nightborne Soulstone when I was contacted by an emissary of the Empyrean Society. When I arrived at their enclave, our old nemesis Kathra'natir was waiting for me.
So who are the Empyrean Society? The Empyrean Society of Exotic Magical Arts (acronym E.S.E.M.A.) is a dangerous cult established in the Empyrean Society Enclave in Azsuna. They claimed to study all magic regardless of its source, but in reality they focused mostly on the forbidden dark magic. Even worse, the Tirisgarde discovered that they begun delving into the practice of fel magic. It’s very possible that the Dreadlords were teaching these cultists the magic of the Nathrezim themselves.
The Nathrezim were known to have extensive knowledge of the magic permeating in the Twisting Nether. In Nathrea they had massive libraries just filled with ancient knowledge. Illidan saw these massive libraries when he visited the Nathrezim’s homeworld, It’s where he got the knowledge of the Legion’s prison planet Mardum.
Legion ends with this plot thread open, Kathra’natir’s soul is trapped so he is alive when all of his other brothers were either killed or defeated in the Legion Expansion. What this mage quest chain, titled Prepare To Be Assimilated, did was canonize the comics in regard to Kathra’natir so now we have a vast lore background on him that is considered canonical in World of Warcraft (as some comics have been de-canonized) this means that Kathra’natir could rise as a new potential villain to fill in the gaps now that the Legion has been defeated and Sargeras has been imprisoned.
And we see these plot threads leading to Shadowlands. If my sepeculation is correct about Kathra'natir being the darkness that manipulated, or helped manipulate the Broken Shore, he has a connection to Mueh’zala and since Millhouse Manastorm is also featured in Da Other Side dungeon I think that’s the best place to find answers.
A new spoiler of a Dreadlord field report in the Shadowlands references a mysterious master, the final line says:
We remain wary, though. Since they are observant of multiple outcomes, it is conceivable they could anticipate our coming.Similar to the titans, the naaru and their keepers are singular in purpose. Their adherence to a linear path is an obvious shortcoming.
They savor nothing more than being proved right, so if they believe they have converted one of us to their precious Light, they will trust that agent implicitly.The adherents to Life are the most insidious of opponents, perhaps because their nature is so antithetical to our ownStill, we learned much from observing the link between their plane and Ardenweald, and we have high confidence that a vulnerability has been identified. Our operative has already gained the trust of her target.And as previously discussed, our position within the plane of Disorder is proceeding flawlessly. Consuming fel energy is not a pleasant process, but a necessary one
There’s an old saying in WoW lore, if you follow any conflict, you will see a Dreadlord in the shadows manipulating the events.
In the Uther story of the Folk and Fairytales story, which is only an allegory. It’s hinted that Arthas’s soul is “the sapphire in a sword pendant Lady Miatharas wears (an anagram for M.I.A. Arthas, which explains why he’s not seen in Shadowlands and is “missing in action”) is in a sword.
We watched the Jailer use a soul to reforge Shalamane into Kingsmourne. At this point it was almost a sure bet that the shard that was forged into a new mourneblade is Arthas, which adds a whole new layer to how both Sylvanas and Anduin mirror Arthas in their own ways.
The entire Uther story was an allegory on how Arthas and by extension the Jailer, cannot be defeated. Anyone who takes up a sword against him are ‘doomed.’ I think the sword, and Arthas, may continue to ‘poison’ Anduin’s mind over the course of this expansion. This is setting up for an interesting plot in my opinion. I really can’t wait to see where it goes. Especially now with Jaina aware that a new runeblade has been forged and it’s no longer only Anduin’s life on the line, but having to eventually confront the fact that Arthas’s soul is in the blade itself.
Uther’s journey to find compassion for Arthas may play into helping save Anduin from becoming the next pawn of the Jailer. Arthas, may just be too far gone to be saved. He may yet serve as a tragic reminder than not everyone the jailer has “used” can be saved.
It’s aligned with the Kirin Tor, which has a lot of people thinking it’s Khadgar, which is plausible. But I can’t help but hope it’s Medivh and everything I’ve speculated about with him comes to fruition.
Yes, “The Lord of Ravens will turn the key.” I’ve always hoped that this whisper meant Medivh and now I have way more excitement for 9.1.
I would love for my tinfoil hat theory that Sylvanas’s power may be attributed to Medivh and not the Jailer may actually have some ground to stand on instead of just in the tin foil hat realm.
No matter what, I think it’s only fitting that Medvih be a part of the “Death” expansion. Right now this NPC’s whereabouts is unknown, with Wowhead reporting that it might be in Oribos, one commenter says they saw it flying in the direction of Revendreth, take that information with a grain of sand.
(I tried to get a high quality capture but the Warcraft game cinematics are just terrible quality, they were amazing by early 2000′s standards but sadly this is the best High Def Medivh can get)
Thematic Parallels: Thrall’s potential Shadowlands Arc about Redeeming the Horde
With the Blizzconline 2021 schedule out today i was surprised to see that on the 20th the writers are sitting down to talk about The Evolution of Thrall. To be honest at first I was a bit taken aback because Thrall really has been only a minimal character in Shadowlands up until this point and it’s only been teased that he will eventually have a reunion with his mother. But that got me to thinking what other implications about the future of the story this panel could be making.
It’s possible that Thrall will take a much more centralized role in 9.1. And that really got me speculating about the possibilities of Thrall’s future plot in Shadowlands. I remembered that Garrosh was teased in the Revendreth Afterlives cinematic and we know he’s been used as a “workhorse” in Revendreth because he refuses to repent. And that’s right, Gul’dan even makes a comment about the ‘son of Hellscream’ not caring about redemption when he has thoughts on the Horde’s redemption and that’s what Thrall’s arc will ultimately boil down to: The Horde’s Redemption.
I know a lot of people criticize Battle for Azeroth for being terribly written, but it’s a possibility that Battle for Azeroth was simply misunderstood. Partly because it was a continuation of themes that were set in motion in Warlords of Dreanor but because WoD was so unpopular and underwhelming that many people missed these important themes.
Paralles between the Mak’gora between Thrall and Garrosh in the Nagrand Finale and the Mak’Gora between Saurfang and Sylvanas in BfA:
I’m linking the actual video in case people want to watch for themselves but the emotions that are coming out of Garrosh are really important. Garrosh is a terrible guy, he was a terrible Warchief but listen to what he says: his anger at Thrall for abandoning the Horde and leaving him to pick up the pieces is real, his emotions of being let down by Thrall are real.
Thrall” “You must answer for your crimes Garrosh.”
Garrosh: “All I did, i did for the Horde!”
This is interesting that Garrosh believes that he had the Horde’s best interest at heart when he was committing crimes against the Horde. Because those same words will be said in Battle for Azeroth by Saurfang. This entire belief that the ends justify the means as long as the means serve the Horde is again something we also pick apart when Sylvanas does it later on in Battle for Azeroth.
Thall: “You failed the Horde!”
Again those same words, are used by Saurfang in the Mok’gora against Sylvanas; “You failed to kill hope at Teldrassil. You failed to turn us against eachother at Lordaeron. You just keep failing!”
Garrosh: “You made me Warchief, you left me to pick up your pieces. You failed me!.”
It’s easy to empathize with Garrosh here in the same way it’s easy to empathize with Sylvanas in Before the Storm when she curses Vol’jin and his Loa for making her Warchief because being Warchief comes with all this hidden baggage to pick up the mess of the past and galvanize that into a “New Horde”. But the concepts of “New Horde” and “Old Horde” is what divides the Horde not what makes it stronger. I do strongly believe that Sylvanas wasn’t a bad Warchief, i have tones of meta on my blog about it if you want to read why I think this way. And maybe the pressures to be Warchief are just too much and that’s what lead Thrall to abandon the Horde. Because Thrall did abandon the Horde, that’s part of this plot.
Garrosh: “You never had the strength of a true warrior.”
It’s interesting that Thrall’s eyes flash with red and he is able to summon the elements and he becomes unremorseful for what he did to Garrosh. This same feeling was felt when Sylvanas unceremoniously overpowered and killed Saurfang, only Thrall was there to watch firsthand what he did to Garrosh. This is important because it confirms Ill’gynoth whisper “He gets his strength from the Earth, our Earth, our strength!” is about Thrall. The Old Gods and the Elemental Lords have long been allies, so this is a theme that could come back to play in any future Old God related content. Maybe Thrall in this moment didn’t have true strength, only strength bestowed by the Old Gods to crush a pawn that didn’t play out in their favor. In this moment a lot of the fandom was turned off by Thral, this was not the hero they remembered. Many people who claimed that “Garrosh did nothing wrong” were put off by the way Garrosh was unceremoniously ‘taken care of, the scared timber in his voice as Thrall squeezed the life out of him, He died cowardly, and weak, and as someone who sympathized with Sylvanas in Battle for Azeroth I understand how that can feel like Blizzard writers were just throwing his character under the bus to elevate Thrall. Thrall has had mixed reviews from the fandom since this moment. To some this is the moment his character was ruined forever. And plotwise in Shadowlands these parallels between Thrall and Sylvanas will become huge points of interest as Thrall grows as a character.
Thrall” “No you choose your own destiny!”
Reading the forums there seems to be a lot of people who debate this idea that we have a lack of free will and that wow villains’ most notably, Arthas, Garrosh, Illidan and Sylvanas must be held accountable for their own choices and not to blame their poor life choices on “fate” or destiny. Garrosh chose to blow up Theramore, Sylvanas choseto burn Teldrassil. The horde choseto follow Gul’dan and drink the blood of Mannoroth. Those choices are what makes the Horde irredeemable and no amount of pandering to the concept of lack of free will will change some people’s minds on that. But we cant ignore that from Garrosh to Thrall there is hints to Old God corruption and manipulation and maybe free will is an illusion. Garrosh wasmanipulated by the heart of Y’Shraaj andit’s very possible that upon smashing her body on saronite spikes, Sylvanas became manipulated by Yogg-saron, in N’Zoth’s visions Thrall does become corrupted and he does so because his view of the Horde is corrupted. His desire to protect the Horde is twisted into killing anyone who is a threat to the Horde.
So how does this set up a Redemption for the Horde?
Well, Thrall’s has had a lot of free time between WoD and BfA to contemplate The Horde, his role in the Horde, how he possibly failed the Horde and the cycles that lead ultimately the to same pattern repeating between Saurfang and Sylvanas. I know some are already speculating on how this could be forshadowing Thrall to return as the Warchief of the Horde, only this time with a council but i think this story requires more complexity and nuance than that because it’s not really addressing the problem with the Horde, it’s leadership and the expectations placed on the Warchief that might lead them to make poor choices. Also this has to be leading up to a confrontation between Thrall and Sylvanas, in a similar vein as his confrontation with Garrosh in Nagrand only this time it will be different.
Maybe he will give Sylvanas over to Tyrande as a way to redeem the Horde through bloodshed (although I highly doubt this will be a satisfying outcome) or he kills her outright because she made her choices… or, just maybe, this is the stepping off point for Sylvanas’s redemption and her own arc when it comes to not feeling like she has control over fate. It’s not Tyrande’s responsibility to confront Sylvanas about using the Horde for her personal agenda, it’s Thrall’s. But it’s also Thrall’s responsibility to take accountability for leaving the Horde to unstable people.
At the very least at the end of the day, I hope this will open a path for talking about the Horde’s redemption. Because it’s not going to be an easy road to get to that point but baby steps in the right direction are still steps in the right direction.
Here’s the Reckoning cinematic. I suggest you watch these two videos back to back. I’d be happy to read other people’s interpretations or feelings about this. My inbox is always open.
I wanted to revisit this, in light of new emotional story beat spoilers between Draka and Thrall that was posted on WoWhead, earlier this week.
I want to hone in on when Draka says “Remember who you were, but take pride in who you are.” I feel like this might even become the core lesson of Shadowlands and how it can also be applied to other characters, and the situation of the Horde as well. There’s too much emphasis being put on the past, not enough on the present, and with news that there will be a new Warcraft novel featuring the past and present of Sylvanas Windrunner, it seems like this will be integral to her emotional plot as well. This might pave the way for her returning to the Horde, it’s anyone’s best guess at this point, but there does seem to be some themes that are lining up.
I can’t wait to see how this moral continues to grow within Shadowlands into a tangible arc for the Horde. Seeing Thrall in Orgim’s plate, knowing that he could potentially be wielding Doomhammer again, It’s exciting. But it’s also a reminder that there is still a lot of emotional ground work that needs to be paved in Shadowlands for an emotionally impactful payoff down the road.
Orgrim wasn’t a saint and he hated the undead, and didn’t want them in the Horde. Thrall wearing Orgrim’s plate could be a sending a message, or it could be about turning over a new leaf. it’s really hard to tell since the story is just getting started, but if this is heralding the story that’s to come, it’s going to be one Hell of a ride.
